I did get the borders sewn on the "Dozen Roses" quilt yesterday, but I got done too close to time to having to leave for the AAUW meeting to be able to photograph it. Maybe later today. It turned out very cute.

I spent some time thinking about what would make me happiest this weekend. And I realized that it would include getting my house all cleaned up (I've been so busy I've kind of neglected it) and getting my tomato plants and putting them in and then just staying home and knitting or quilting. So that's what I'm going to do. I think this afternoon after classes get done, I'm going to clean house, then I'm going to mow the lawn (it needs it) and maybe do some other yardwork (this time with gloves and a long sleeved shirt) and then tomorrow, I'm going to go out early in the day and get my plants (or actually, maybe better to do that this afternoon - my mom always claimed it was best to transplant late in the day because it shocked the plants less).

I also think I'm going to make a trip to the local quilt shop and get the needed sashing fabrics. And possibly take along the newly finished quilt and consider backings for it (I'm not sure I have a big enough piece of "just the right" fabric - and as my state income tax refund came in, I feel like I can spend it (it's a small refund) on an extra-nice backing for this quilt).

(ETA: Nope. The local quilt shop is closed today and tomorrow because the owner had a family emergency - I ran down there late this afternoon and found it closed. I'm trying hard not to be overly sad about it; after all, it is a family emergency for the owner, but I hate that, when I have something really nice and really fun planned that I was looking forward to, and I don't get to do it. It's not QUITE enough to tempt me to drive to McKinney, though.)

One thing I do think I want to do - as I have time and inclination - is to work down the fabric stash a little. I've been flipping through my quilting magazines and finding quilt tops I'd like to make - and as I figure out either a stack of fabrics on-hand or a single "focus" fabric that I want to use, I put it aside with the magazine. (If I have a "focus" fabric but no others, then I can hunt the stash for fabrics that go). I have a pattern in mind for the "traveling gnome" fabric I bought a while back. And a pattern for some semi-vintagey fabrics (I think some are from the Katie Jump Rope line, and the others from the Peas and Carrots fabric line) that are deep in the stash. And I found a simple "pinwheel" quilt where I think I can use the yellow sashing I rejected from the Mixtape Quilt - I'm thinking either using blue fabrics for the pinwheels (oh, I think I have a fat quarter packet of yellow and blue teacup-themed prints that would work - will have to look for that) or using 1930s reprint fabrics.

And I've been pressing off and stacking up the 1930s reprint vintage fabrics as I tidy the sewing room bit by bit: I also want to start cutting again for an eventual Tumbler quilt - big enough to cover my bed this time - all out of 1930s era reproduction prints.

So, rather than driving to McKinney through frustrating-making traffic, I think I'm going to shop my own fabric stash this weekend - maybe put together packets of stuff I want to work with, maybe do some cutting for when I want to just sit and sew, and probably wind up delighting myself by finding something wonderful I had bought and then forgotten about.

The quilt that most caught my fancy in the new quilting magazine is here. I have a stack of fabrics in mostly-turquoise, with some bright yellowish-green and some yellow, that I had assembled from fat quarters I just "liked" - I think I picked them up at Quilt Asylum a while back.

I even have a piece of semi-solid turquoise - left from the most recent County Lines quilt (it was the backing) that is large enough do to the "color sashing" (the red in the pictured quilt).

I would need to get some kind of large piece of solid color to use for the main background. I'm thinking white would probably be best. Or possibly a pale, pale yellow. What I might do is stitch up the rows of patterned fabric and then take them down to the local quilt shop and try them out against various solids (and marbles; they have most of the Moda Marbles there, I think)

I also really like the Lincoln's Platform pattern and think I will eventually pull out some of the reproduction Civil War-era fabrics I have and make one of those.

Of course, first I need to finish the Hill Country Spring quilt top. But I'm thinking if I can maybe break away early enough today, I might feel like working on that.

I think my brain is "unclenching."

I went down to the local quilt shop today...I had been thinking about the "Good Night Monkey" line of fabrics they had. I first saw them a couple of months ago. And I told myself, "You do not need another quilt made of novelty sock-monkey fabric."

And one day I went in and it was the front-of-the-store display. And I told myself: "You do not need another quilt made out of sock-monkey novelty fabric."

And the last time I was in there, they had it up on one of the big shelves near where you get your fabric cut, and I said to myself: "YOU ARE 40. You do not need another quilt with ever-lovin' sock monkeys on it."

And you know? In the past week, I decided that I did. Oh, I kept trying to talk myself out of it, but you know? I decided that since I kept thinking about it, that meant I really should have it.

And besides, I really am fond of the first sock-monkey quilt. I have it spread across the foot of my bed right now for nights when I need a bit more warmth on my feet. And a few times when I felt unwell (a couple weekends ago, I had a tiny touch of the stomach thing going around - nothing BAD but a slight upset stomach and chills and a few muscle aches) or sad, I wrapped up in it and it made me feel better.

So this afternoon I went down there. And at first I could not find it and felt the same little sadness and bereft-ness I felt as a child, on a few occasions when I saved up my little allowance for weeks (or even months) for one particular thing I wanted, and then finding that it was sold out (or that it was a one-of-a-kind and they weren't getting more) when I got down to the store with money in hand.

But I was lucky this time; they had just moved it into a large crib they use in the "baby" section of the store.

I really like this fabric. It is very different from the other sock-monkey fabric, almost, in an odd way, more sophisticated:


Some of the fabrics are from a related but different line, the one with the bananas (I bought the last bit on the bolt; it seemed lonely - it has been sitting there on the shelf for MONTHS) and the one with all the monkey faces, but they coordinate.

I am not sure what pattern I will use yet; I have a large amount of the monkeys-in-pajamas and the bunk-beds one, so I might do a quilt alternating long strips of those with pieced blocks.

Also, I LOVE little details like this:




See that green book spine? (The fabric is supposed to be books lined up; some of them even have titles printed on them). On the green book, they have parodied the little Modern Library running-figure - turned it into a little monkey.

That makes me so happy. As I said, I love little details like that.

I'm still working on the Pie Crust Pileup quilt - I actually have a backing for it now, too, it turns out I had forgotten the quilt shop was having a 50% off Christmas fabrics sale (and they were HOPPING today, which makes me happy to see). They had one of the very fabrics (the one that looks sort of like Fair Isle knitting) that was in my quilt top in the 50% off group - so for the price of a plain old muslin backing, I have a lovely backing that coordinates with one of the fabrics in my quilt.

I also mostly-finished (except for the long chain handle) the first of the "Fortune Cookie" bags, and mirabile dictu, it works. I thought I had done something backwards, but no - the bag folds up just like it's supposed to. It will need to be felted and I'm seriously considering doing a second one right away (I think I am going to give one to my sister-in-law; it looks like the sort of thing she might like) and felt them at the same time.

*Monday, classes start. I guess I'm ready. I mean, I'm prepared but I'm not sure I'm emotionally ready for 2, 75-minute-back-to-back classes each day.

*I was watering the plants out in the front garden today, using the hose with one of those multi-nozzles (that will do mist, cone, soaker, spray....). The spigot leaks a little so right next to it is a little patch of mud that the robins have discovered. (They use it both as a source of worms and of mud - I guess they're building their second set of nests for the year). While I was watering, a robin came to look at the mud and happened to walk through a bit of the spray. It kind of hunkered down and started fluffing its feathers like they do when they are bathing. So I carefully moved the spray so that the robin was underneath more of it (I didn't point the hose at the robin; I didn't want to hurt it). It stood there and bathed and even started chirping while it did. It was sort of an odd moment...it was probably only about six feet from me. Eventually it got done and ran out from under the water and then flew away.

The only bad thing about robins discovering the little mud patch is that they've begun leaving lots of "calling cards" on my driveway next to where it is. I suppose at the end of the summer I could get the powerwasher out if I had to. I kind of like seeing the robins around and most of them seem to have little fear of me. (I tend to move slowly and cautiously when they're around because I don't want them to get all scare-y, it's neat being able to see them so close up). And of course they eat other bugs as well.

* I finally got all the long strip-seams done on the current quilt, and am now on to the more-fun part - cutting the long strips into smaller segments and sewing those together into sort-of four patch blocks. Even though I've only cut up a few of the strips so far, I did piece together a couple of blocks to see how they look:



I think the white sashing was a good choice; I wasn't sure what color to use but I think the white looks nice and crisp with the pastels.

I have a bunch of other tops I'm longing to start - I have the Mixtape Quilt fabric I've had stacked up since my birthday, and I dug out some old, old fabric (well, old, old, in fabric-line terms, where most lines are printed for only three months). This was from deep in my stash:



It's an early Jennifer Sampou line called "Folklore." I think this is 10 years old now; I'm pretty sure I bought it before I moved here. (there is also a small red and small green check fabric but I figured they wouldn't show up well, it's a black check on a dark color).

Most quilters have a few fabrics that, once they've bought them, they can't bear to cut into them.

This is my favorite one:


I love those hearts. I also have it in red on a navy background.

I had never done anything with these fabrics, because, as I said, I couldn't bear to think of them fractured into little pieces where the impact and prettiness might be lost. Well, recently I bought a copy of "Material Obsession." Most of the quilts in there are applique (which I am less interested in than piecing), but the first quilt in the book - called Avalon - is a very simple quilt: 18" squares of attractive fabrics set in sashing.

And it occurred to me: I could use the fabrics for that! I wouldn't have to cut them into tiny little pieces!

But of course, Avalon takes 12 fabrics, and I have but eight from the line. But this is why a person has a "stash":



I found all of these coordinating fabrics in the stash. The big daisies were bought for another project that I lost interest in, the sort of wild print on the left was a 1930s reprint, the spools was something I just liked (and was on sale). And that last fabric - the bright doesn't-quite-match-with-the-others-but-I'm-still-using-it red with little flowers? It's a small piece of fabric that my mom had saved and gave to me the last time I was up visiting: it is a remnant from a dress she sewed me when I was a child.

(I come by my packrat ways naturally, you see. Of course, my mother, growing up, had to wait for HER mother to remove basting thread and give it to her to sew doll dresses with, so my mother is very frugal about fabric and thread)

I'm going to have to piece it to get an 18" square* but it delights me that I have it and can put it in a quilt. I think it will go somewhere near the center of the quilt.

(*Quilters of old pieced bits together to get bits big enough for patches all the time. I have a vintage quilt top where the person did that, and my mother has several in her collection where there was a lot of piecing-to-get-pieces.)

I also have some butter-yellow (sort of the 1930s yellow) solid color fabric that I think will make good sashing. So this will be (except for the back, when it comes down to it), a totally-out-of-the-stash quilt.

*I'm also working on a new pair of socks. The pattern is called Faceted Rib; it is a slip stitch pattern which means it works up Very. Slowly.

The yarn is Wildfoote, Brown Sheep's venerable sock yarn, in one of the newer "hand dyed" colorways. This one is called "Sonatina":



Here's a close up, less true to color, but showing the stitches a little more clearly:



It also seems to eat up more yarn, but the pattern was written for yarn with the same yardage as these (it was written for Lorna's Laces, which is also 215 yards per skein), so I'm going to pretty much trust it will come out. (And I'm not going to make the tops the full 7 1/2"; I'm probably going to stop at 6" which is long enough for me.)

Looking at my calendar, I realize now I am actually one week ahead of where I thought I was, work-wise. (I was forgetting that last week of January). So I actually do NOT have to write an exam this afternoon, or an exam review, or do some of the prep work I was thinking I would have to do.

So I'm declaring tonight (and maybe later this afternoon, depending on how long a meeting takes and how fast I can do a little bit of grading) a Work-Free Zone.

I haven't decided yet what I will do, whether it will be to try to finish the sock monkey quilt or whether to watch one of the Campion movies I have and knit on something too complex for a knit-and-read project (probably the Little Child's Sock; the Angst to Crowned Heads scarf, while a lovely thing to knit on, you can't exactly look at the screen while you're doing it, and yes, I enjoy WATCHING Peter Davison as well as listening to the dialog).

I do have another quilt (yes, yet another) I want to start sometime soon. (I do not know what this brings the total of "tops in the planning stage" to). I have slowly been accumulating "cute tiny animals" fabric - I bought a couple pieces of printed-in-Japan fabric with animals not at all unlike the Aranzi Aronzo bunnies and bears and other critters. And as I'd see a fabric in a shop that would go, I'd get it. So I have the three original fabrics, plus one with tiny cute frogs on it, plus a couple of cartoony cat fabrics and cute stylized houses. And then I found Superbuzzy, which sells Japanese fabric. And I bought some (hedgehogs, deer, and sheep) from them.

I love the fabrics because they are so cute. And, as another blogger - and again, I don't remember who, this was during a bored-weekend fugue-state of blogsurfing - said that she liked the Japanese fabrics because their color and design reminded her a bit of 1970s fabric. And you know, I think that's part of it.

I look at the "dancing hares" fabric from Superbuzzy and I can imagine my mother making a school jumper for me out of it; and the cute fawn being a full-skirted dress with a plain white yoke.

So, sigh, I suppose it's partly nostalgia that makes me love these fabrics.

The quilt top? It's going to be very simple - just a bunch of rectangles, maybe a finished size of 6" by 3", all sewn together like tiles. I'm going to do a small enough quilt - a lap or "napping" quilt so that 4 yards of backing will be sufficient, because I have a very cute Alexander Henry farm print in my stash that will then work for the backing - it was one of those fabrics bought super-cheap at the Sewing Studio's January sale and I liked it but never knew quite what to do with it.

And though I've spoken of more Project Linus quilts, this quilt is going to be for ME. I am already thinking of calling it my "Yes, I AM 40, why do you ask?" quilt. Because of all the cute and the little dancing animals. Some of which wear clothes.

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I gave myself the promised "treat" for making it through the tooth-stuff and went to McKinney.

McKinney is an interesting place - at least the downtown square is. It seems to always be changing. Stores open up, seem to prosper, then close down and are replaced by something else. (One of the shopkeepers told me - and I can't remember all the details so I might have it kind of wrong - but apparently few of the shopkeepers own their buildings; either the city does or a developer does, and there have been cases of otherwise-prosperous and bill-paying businesses being told to close or move because the building owner wants the space for something else. I suppose that happens everywhere - after all, that's why Ewe Knit had to move, up in Normal - but it seems unfair to me somehow.)

I was somewhat disappointed to find that my favorite antique store of all time, The Antique Collection is gone - apparently to be replaced by yet another restaurant. (There have been three or four new restaurants - most of them very upscalely and expensive looking - come in in the past year or so. I hope that the square isn't converting to "Restaurant Square," because then I will no longer have a good reason to go there. I can only eat one meal per trip...)

Also, a few of the funky stores that had been there have been replaced by very fancy, very expensive-looking "high grade antiques" or home stores. (I say "-looking" because a glance in the window of the places told me (a) that they had nothing I'd be all that interested in and (b) it was probably out of my price range anyway and (c) I probably do not look glamorous or rich enough to be welcomed in the store as a customer).

I will say one new store I was very happy to see - a Texas/Southwestern specialty-food store called Loco Cowpoke. (I hope they can avoid the "O HAI WE UPGRADED UR BUILDING. NOW LEAVE" trend). I bought a bunch of stuff for birthday presents for various people (who do not live in or near Texas) because they are things that are unlikely to be found elsewhere. And I found a pickled baby corn that is almost (but not quite) a replacement for the Paisley Farms brand that I used to love but can no longer find for sale.

The guy running the place was very nice and very friendly. He said he had (I think) twin four year old sons, and he hoped they'd be taking over the business someday. He also had samples of most everything out - so if you wanted to know if you'd like something that you'd never tried, you could. (He even opened a bottle of the pickled corn for me to try one, because he didn't have any of that out). He also hopes soon to have online ordering from a website, which would be nice, especially if you wanted to send a gift to someone.

I also found a very amusing item - in one of the gift/antique shops, they had these little flashlights shaped like black cats. They are the dynamo-powered kind, where you squeeze a lever on the side to charge them up. And then, the eyes of the cat are two LED bulbs - so when you turn it on, its eyes glow. I know I am easily amused, but it made me laugh. I got one for my sister-in-law, as part of her birthday present, because I think she'll find it funny. And a person can always use an extra flashlight, especially one where there are no batteries to corrode and leak when the thing isn't used for a long time (or be snagged by someone who needs that size for a radio or remote control or something).

Ambrosia was still there (frou frou stuff - candles and soap and things like that). As was Morningstar Treasures, which I guess is now my favorite antique shop. (I hope I have not cursed them now by saying that. Except I think - though I am not sure - the owners of the shop actually own the building). And several of the other long-term antique stores were still there, and The Little Red Hen (where I bought a black jumper-dress made of a clingy knit, perhaps against my better judgment - it fits well everywhere but it looks a bit poochy around the gut. Though maybe the right slip - or, failing that, a few months of sit-ups - will correct that. Or maybe I'm being too self-critical. I liked the dress because it was kind of arty looking but also was fairly comfortable). And the Pantry, where I ate lunch. (I don't feel comfortable going alone to the really fancy places that have opened up there, and besides, I enjoy a $5 sandwich and $3 piece of pie at The Pantry as much as I would enjoy a $20+ full-course lunch).

And Happiness is Quilting is still there, happily. As is Quilt Asylum (which is actually in a strip mall on University, rather than in the downtown).

One thing I noticed - very few of the stores were at all busy. I don't know if it was because it's still so soon after Christmas that most people are paying off their holiday bills, or if it was because it was somewhat chilly that day, or if it really IS the bad economy, but the only places that were hopping were the two quilt shops. (Which makes me happy. I always like to see a quilt shop busy selling fabric and books).

I don't know if it's a function of "Fabric will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no fabric" (to misquote The Whole Earth Catalog) or whether quilters are less buffeted by the winds of changing finance, or if there are more "small" splurges you can do at a quilt place than at a frou-frou shop or an antiques store. (A fat quarter of fabric can be had for $2.50 or even as little as $1.50 if it's an "orphan" - a piece left after the rest of the fabric on the bolt has sold out)

At any rate - yes, I have a new quilt's worth of fabric (all washed and folded and piled up for now). It's from the new "Ooh La La" line (I got the more pink-and-teal colors, rather than the yellow-and-gray-and-brick colors.) And I selected some coordinating fat quarters to fill in, and a big piece of a solid blue-green fabric that is the same as the blue-green in the print - I'm going to do another one of those "County Line" quilts like the one I did with the Poppy fabric.

Most of the coordinating prints I chose were kind of "abstracty;" the feeling I am going for is an (imagined) Paris of the 1950s where people went to see art and to be sort of what was thought of as cool or hip in that era. (It sounds dumb when I write it out but I think the quilt will look nice. I guess what I'm shooting for is to sort of recall the drawings of stylized, stereotypical Parisian "street scenes" with fashionable women wearing Dior's New Look and walking dogs, and starving-artist painters with their easels, and the little flower sellers on the quais.). One of the prints I am using looks a bit like a Mondrian painting; another is large stylized flowers, and still another is an abstract pattern of black and dark grey on a blue-green background.

That's kind of how I plan quilts, a lot of the time - I start with a fabric or a group of fabrics and think about what I want the quilt to "feel" like when you look at it, or what I want it to make me think of. And then I try to find fabrics to go with the original fabrics that keep that mood and color scheme going, and I figure out a pattern that will work. (I think County Lines will work well because of the strong rectilinear design, recalling the squares and rectangles on the Mondrian-ish print).

I also have a packet of fabrics that I finally "finalized" out of my stash today - I had been working on this for a while but I think it will be the next quilt after I finish the one I'm currently piecing - I wanted a "sea glass" quilt - one in very soft, greyed colors, mainly that greyish bluish green, and I wanted to do it using the "Yellow Brick Road" pattern (The same pattern I used nearly four years ago now). I had a bunch of Kaffe Fasset prints (and other Westminster) prints that I had originally got for something else when I decided on the sea glass look - but several of the prints I had in the stack didn't work with that, so I took the stack apart and searched around and found a couple other fabrics that WILL work, ones I had bought because I liked them but with no set destination in mind. And I even have the exact amount of a border fabric I need - a big piece of that Dimples fabric that I had bought with the thought of it being borders on something some day in mind.

I have to talk about Dimples - of all the fabric lines I've used, is is my favorite. It is the one I keep going back to when I need a "fill in" of a particular color. It comes in all kinds of lovely colors (there are 10 "pages" of it on the site I linked above), it's simple enough that it doesn't detract from other fabrics, and you can almost always find a matching color to whatever prints you are using. If I had unlimited money and storage, I think I'd order a bolt of at least my favorite colors and the ones I use the most.

(In particular, there are a lot of wonderful greens in the line. And I use green a lot in my quilting).

Oh, the current quilt? I'm finally cutting and sewing the Sock Monkey fabric. It's a very simple quilt pattern - some just-big (12 1/2") squares, with some smaller squares with 'frames' around them, and a few Pinwheel blocks. I'm not 100% sure I'll keep this quilt, either, after it's finished - it's maybe a bit bright for me. (But being sock monkeys, if I decide I don't want it, it would be perfect to give to a kid). But then again, I might decide I like it and want to keep it once I get more of it put together. I'm trying to keep the orange (my least favorite color) to a minimum, but it may be hard to avoid.

Another thing that I "guess" I've started and will work more on...

When I was sewing together the back for the Bento Box quilt, at first I thought I was going to be a couple inches shy, so I started piecing a long strip 3 1/2" wide out of the scraps of the fabric from the front (plus a few other scraps because I realized I didn't have enough of those that were very big).

Then I realized that since it's a 4" clearance needed on each side, adding to the width by going to a lot of trouble would do nothing for me because it would just be cut off at the end. And I remeasured and it will be at most 1/2" total shy - and I think Mary can probably work around that (or it may come out in stretching; I was measuring with the fabric pretty slack).

So I have a long, long strip pieced that is 3 1/2" wide. So I guess I'll dig through my scrap bag some more - and start saving the "bits" from the edges of the pieces I cut now - and start piecing some kind of silly bright strip-and-string quilt. (The strip currently has pieces from the Bento Box top, and also pieces left from the very bright, mostly Denyse Schmidt fabrics Tumbler quilt I made a year or so ago).

I also realize now that if I run across any, "meh, this doesn't go with anything" oddball fat quarters in my stash, I might be able to cut them up and incorporate them in this. Or get rid of the amounts I've been hanging on to that are really too small for anything BUT a scrap quilt (Aha. I have some 9" or so wide pieces left of some Kaffe Fasset fabrics that should work here. I wondered what I was going to do with those).

I also finished the 3-6-9 blocks last night, but didn't have the energy to think about laying them out and setting them together.

I'm also itching to start the Sock Monkey quilt. I've decided to "let" myself buy special fabric for backings as I finish quilts (I've been trying to work down the stash some by digging out at least the pre-grouped fabrics and sewing them together). But since I rarely buy backing before making a quilt (after a sad experience on one of my early quilts, where I found I lacked 1/4 yard of what I needed), I don't have backings for the monkeys or the Paris Cats (and ooh, they're coming out with a line of London Cats which I think I may have to get).

The nice thing is, the NICE LITTLE QUILT SHOP IN MY TOWN (and yes, I still feel I have to shout that) carries the sock-monkey fabric line. So once I finish the top, I can run over there and pick out the 4 yards or whatever it is I will need from the sock monkey fabrics they have.

It was a good weekend, as you can tell from the quilt-completion. I also ironed and stacked a couple more small-ish quilts' worth of fabrics, and contemplated patterns, and found a couple patterns in some magazines I had that I want to use.

So...maybe I'll post photos of the fabric stacks later on, but just for the record now, here they are:

1. Pink and grey fabrics, sort of a late 1930s/early 1940s feel to them...some of the prints are kind of feed-sack-like. I think I have 14 fat quarters (ones I bought specifically to use together, plus others I grabbed from the stash and said, "ooh, that goes with these!). Also have 2 1/2 yards (or maybe 3) of one of the prints for a border. I don't think I have a pattern chosen for these yet that seems perfect; there's not a huge amount of contrast and that could be a problem. Maybe a zig zag pattern alternating grey and pink dominated prints.

2. Brown, turquoise, and sort of kelly green combinations (It's not exactly kelly green but it's close...it's hard to describe). I think I have a dozen fat quarters and a couple half-yard pieces. No pattern in mind yet but I'm leaning towards either doing something like a "Yellow Brick Road" or maybe just cutting a big bunch of rectangles and sewing them together...just doing simple one-patches.

3. Sock Monkey fabric. I don't have so much of this (and it's hard to find blending pieces not from the same line). I have a pattern for this, it's from one of the back issues of (I think) McCall's quilting...just a very simple pattern, some blocks pinwheel, some framed-square, but most just big squares, which will take advantage of the oddball prints.

4. "Paris Cats." Another novelty-themed fabric. Another one that probably would be best served by a simple pattern. So I'm going to use this one. The brown-dominated fabrics will be the darker parts of the squares and pink-dominated (or cream-background) will be the lighter parts. The bars that are yellow on the model quilt will be a sage green, which coordinates with the other fabrics I'm using.

5. A bunch of (mostly) Westminster prints in sort of a sagey, grey, sea-glass palette. Not sure yet what to do with them; I might just do a simple "stairstep" type quilt of rectangles. I'm not sure how many of these I have; I didn't count them.

6. I unearthed my pile of State Bird fabrics and the white Kona Cotton...again, this is going to be just a simple quilt, large blocks featuring the birds with white sashing. This one is going to be full-sized, that is, large enough to use as a bed quilt.

I don't know why I suddenly got re-interested in piecing tops. My interest in different crafts seems to wax and wane...I get very interested in one craft or one project and only want to work on it for a while. I've decided not to apologize for that, not to force myself into some rota of "finish this up first" (except for the knit TARDIS; that does have a bit of a deadline). I think if I go where inspiration strikes me, not only will I be happier but I may make better artistic decisions. (If it's not too pretentious to call what I do "art," I do have my questions about it because my quilts are mostly 'traditional' quilts designed to be used as warm coverings and I usually use patterns that someone else designed. But they make me happy. I guess I'll say that I'd like to see the word CRAFT reclaimed to mean what it really means - useful things made with skill and made to be beautiful. Sadly, too many people take CRAFT to mean something you do with the Day Camp Kids using old toilet-paper tubes and chenille stems. And though that kind of "craft" can be fun and has its purpose, I think that kind of stuff lead to a certain backlash, a certain snark...when someone says they do "crafts," all too often the response is a patronizing, "Oh, that's nice" or a look that says, "You have failed my hipness test." But if you claim to do "art," people remain interested in you, at least until they brand you a poseur...

But I do think what I do is craft, rather than art...craft in the old, William-Morris sense. I am making things that have a function but which are also (hopefully) beautiful...)

Saturday random:

I couldn't find a still, so you'll have to click on the link (or not, if you know to what I am referring) and imagine "Simon and Garfunkel parody: UR doin' it WRONG" labeled on it in the Impact font, white with black borders:

Simon and Garfunkel impression: FAIL.

Seriously, could they AT LEAST have made fake-Garfunkel taller than fake-Simon? Please.

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I have a bit more free time than anticipated. Because local paper classified ads: FAIL. The church youth group was supposed to have a garage sale today but it turns out the ad never got in the paper, even though the person in charge (not me for a change) took the ad down WELL IN ADVANCE and made the arrangements. And since we're not in an "obvious" location, no one would find us randomly.

So I helped arrange the stuff, and then the other workers offered to repack the stuff for next spring.

Also, there are some items - like a couple of old Paint by Number canvases and some milk glass and a few other borderline-antique things that would probably bring a lot more money on eBay (since we're not in an area where those kinds of things have become hip yet, and selling them at a garage sale would mean a dealer looking to mark up 1000% would be buying them). The sister of one of the women helping out said she'd take photos and put the stuff up.

Actually, though I am leery of eBay (it seems there's too much chance of not getting payment for stuff you've sent out), I'm happy to let some of the more unusual items sell there, rather than, as I said, be "picked" and then have them show up in the local antiques shops with a couple more zeros after the price we had marked on them.

I do have an exam to write and one to grade (it's half graded right now) so I was able to beg off the repackaging. (Thank goodness).

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I finished the "POLICE BOX" stranded work on the first TARDIS side last night. (Which will sound like total gibberish to someone who knows nothing of Dr. Who). It worked out very well...it's actually recognizable as words. I'm pretty happy with this project; I think my brother will be tickled by it. It will be large enough to use as a sofa pillow of sorts. (I'll just have to warn him that if it gets dirty, he will need to surface-wash it rather than throwing it in the machine, or he might find he has a TARDIS that is actually...a lot smaller inside.)

(So I guess that is TARDIS colorwork: SUCCESS, to keep with the LOL-theme).

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So I'm thinking my "reward" this afternoon for finishing the test-grading and test-writing will be to start setting together the Bento Box blocks (say that three times fast). I also have three quilts that need binding applied...one that's been waiting over a year. (Um, yeah. I'm not so fond of the binding thing).

I also think, since it's cold out and this seems a more appealing task right now, I might iron off a bunch of the quilt fabric I've acquired recently and stack it by project. And start thinking about some new projects. I found a bunch of pink and brown fabrics I had put aside for something and I'm contemplating doing a bunch more Bento box blocks and doing a great big mega-Bento quilt, big enough for my bed, with brown background vs. pink background as the color combo. (I even have an appropriate backing stashed away). The Bento Box blocks are kind of fun to make, and I think this time I might just cut block-by-block rather than cutting all at once and sweating whether I have "enough" of the different colors...if I work block-by-block I can judge better. And gather in more fabric if necessary (which probably is not; I'm really fond of pinks and browns together and I have a LOT of them).

(Quilt planning: UR doin' it RIGHT.)

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Oh, and a little PSA for the folks interested in amigurumi or toy-making but who can't find the lock-washer eyes: there's someone on Etsy who goes by the username 6060 who has a wide diversity of them - even some sizes that are normally impossible to find in typical craft stores. I've ordered from her and she ships fast and has fair prices.

(I really love Etsy. I suppose there are people who've had bad experiences with them but all of my experiences have been extremely positive. It's like having a craft mall in your computer. I love being able to find sources for hard-to-find things like the eyes).

More expensive, but really nice (and apparently made BY the person who sells them - wow) are Suncatcher eyes. I've ordered some of these, too, and they are more "special" than the standard lock-washer eyes - they have a more luminous quality. I've only ordered from her once but I was happy with my order.

("Mai eyes: let me show you them"?)

Okay, the LOL-theme is wearing thin, and I need to finish these biostats tests....

I hadn't done any piecing - other than a little hand piecing on the Grandmother's Flower Garden - in quite a while. Part of it is that I had been storing a bunch of junk in my sewing room (it's the room people are least likely to see) and when there's a lot of junk and mess in there, I'm not quite so inclined to go in there and work.

Last week I cleared out about half of the mess, and made it more hospitable. So I finished the cutting of pieces for a "Bento Box" quilt. (There are actually two patterns out there called "Bento Box," I think. This one is sort of like half-Log Cabin blocks).

I was using some fabric I bought over a year ago, some of it being from what purported to be a retro-70s line, though the colors are like none *I* remember from the 70s.

I started sewing blocks yesterday. It's a really fun pattern to do because you do all the cutting at once, then you stack up the fabrics into lights and darks and you can either randomly put fabrics together (which is what I am doing), or you could lay everything out ahead of time on a design wall (or, the floor - which is my "design wall") and have it very planned.

So here are the first six blocks.



Yes. It is kind of bright. I'm not sure but this may be one of my rare mistakes. It's funny, because the fabrics looked so good together in the fat quarters but they begin to fight a little once I sewed them together.

I am trying to reserve judgment on this though; I've had other quilts that didn't look so hot in block form but which settled down nicely once I got the top sewn, or failing that, after it was quilted.

(Actually, I hate the blocks less now than I did, seeing them all lined up together. Maybe things will work out after all).

If I decide it still puts me off after the top's done, I might find someone willing to take it off my hands. Or I might just have it quilted up and finish it and then give it to something like Project Linus - I suspect there MUST be some tween girl somewhere who would find the colors just right.
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Incidentally, I bought one of those one-off Better Homes and Gardens quilt publications yesterday - it's the fall 08 issue of Quilts and More (website here, but 'ware the pop-up ads and the extremely busy site design.)

If you like doing the simpler sort of mostly-rectangle and mostly-square quilts like I do, this issue is a treasure. There are five actual quilts in there I'd like to make, plus a couple other neat projects (there's a pocketed totebag that I'm thinking would be a good general "Christmas gift for female relative or friend") and there are some cute bird decorations that would work on a Christmas tree or hung from a chandelier.

The quilt patterns I particularly like are "I Spy Hallowe'en" (except I'd do it with different fabrics, maybe some of the realistic-flower prints I've collected over the years as the centers of the square-in-squares). And The Main Event - I really, really love that one. I think I actually squealed when I saw it. I think I'd get a "double pink" to use as the main fabric and then dig through my box of Civil War to 1880s reprints to see what goes with it. (I'd probably scale that quilt down - it looks like it's made for a king size bed and would be too large for mine). And In The Meadow is lovely, too...I'm thinking of doing it with the lavender and soft yellow prints I've been saving up, with maybe a shot or two of soft pink added in. Maybe lavender for the centers, and soft yellow and soft green for the strips. Ease Into Autumn and One-Piece Wonder are nice, too, I just haven't envisioned color schemes for them yet. Maybe One Piece Wonder would work for some of the grey and pink 40s reproduction fabrics I bought on my last "big" quilt shop trip. Or it would work with the sort-of-retro American Jane (I have some of the Peas and Carrots line and some of a later line...Look and Learn, I think?)

Almost Irish is a nice enough pattern but I'm having a hard time with the colors...not my favorite combination. Same with High Light.

One thing I'd like to do is start clearing out some of my accumulated fabric (and I have A LOT) by making it up into tops. (I just have to verify that the person who I hired to do quilting in the past is still doing it...) I mean, I have all this fabric I bought because I LOVED it, and it's not doing me much good folded up in a Rubbermaid bin. (And even if I don't LOVE the finished quilt...as I said, there is often someone out there who will love the projects you don't, or there's a charity who will take them and find someone who will love them. If I had a great deal more time, I'd do quilts for Project Linus and other groups).

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Hand quilting also continues. I always forget, when I get away from it, how peaceful it is...it requires a level of concentration over and above what most knitting does for me, so it's a very good activity for calming the mind. There's also something, I don't know, so IMMEDIATE about it...it's just you and the threaded needle (well, and your thimble). And a great deal of the outcome depends on your skill...whereas in knitting, a certain amount of the outcome is influenced by the choice of yarn, and while skill is important, a bad yarn choice can really cover up good skill, whereas a clever yarn choice may be able to camouflage less-even work of someone who's a beginner or whose gauge varies a lot.

I am making an effort to be disciplined and do at least a little hand quilting most days. I'm slowly rebuilding the "callus" that most quilters get on the index finger of the hand that goes under the quilt (in my case, my left hand). (There's a funny scene in one of the old Simpsons episodes concerning that, where Lisa is working on the "family quilt" [which actually seems to be embroidered more than pieced and quilted] and she eventually develops the mighty callus that many hardcore quilters have...)

I am very close to done with Cozy. A few more repeats of the pattern - until it is "long enough" (it is already longer than what the pattern calls for, but as I've said before - I have fairly broad shoulders and so it helps for stoles to be longer for me).

I'm not going to keep working until I run out of yarn (my original plan); it would be too long, then.

I've decided the Bird's Nest Shawl is next in the queue. Camel yarn, yay! (I bought some dk weight camel yarn from Elann a couple years back for this).

I'm also seriously considering - since the Airy Cardigan is in "time out" once again, because I'm just fed up with the hairy yarn - winding off the Second Time Cotton I bought a while back on a trip to visit my folks and starting yet another Sitcom Chic. Because the two I have, I wear all the time. It is an extremely convenient sweater for me - a good weight, it looks fairly good on me, it's feminine without being too fussy. Just generally a good pattern and a sweater that works for me. So I think I need another. (And I'm going to slightly alter the sleeves - provided I have enough yarn - to make them wrist-length. I did that on the blue SitCom chic I have and it looks a lot better on me than the 3/4 length sleeves).

I've decided - somewhat regretfully - to bail on the volunteer work I could have done this weekend. Technically I would have time (or rather, could MAKE the time), but you know? I'm TIRED. Really tired. I mean, in an emotional sense. I've been pushing really hard this week and also did last week, and the next two weeks will be challenging as well. And I've done things physically (like carrying around 50 lb pails of soil) that kind of take me to the limits of my ability these days...so I'm also kind of sore.

I kind of hate bailing, because I know there aren't all that many people who can do this (though there are people who can that never do), but I decided (well, with some influence of my mom, whom I called to say, "I have this ethical dilemma...") that I need to take care of myself, as well. And part of that is getting a good block of relaxation (as opposed to grabbing a broken-up hour or two in an evening in between doing loads of laundry)

Also: I have beans! I noticed yesterday afternoon that the little plants were up, which is good. But one thing I have to do this weekend is get some of the special tomato fertilizer and use it on my tomatoes because they're starting to look kind of peaky, and I don't know if that's because my soil is too low in nitrogen for them or if there's some kind of Magic Tomato Micronutrient that it's missing.

And I've decided as a reward for working so hard this week (and as a fluster for having the carboy explode on me yesterday), I'm going down to the little local quilt shop this afternoon. I've been taking a minute or two to dig in my fabric stash (when I go into that closet - like I did this morning to get my clothes for the day*) and finding more of my 1930s fabric stash, and I think I need to get more of the 30s reproduction solid colors so I can make more of the Grandmother's Flower Garden flowers.

I also want to cut more tumblers for the "someday" 1930s reproduction tumbler quilt.


(*I have a walk-in closet off of my sewing room where I keep most of my clothes as well as my fabric and yarn stashes. The "longer" clothes, like dresses, live in the little bedroom closet I have, because the walk-in has doubled clothes poles. I guess the woman who lived here before me had a lot of clothes.)

I've been trying to finish up the second Horseshoe Crab sock (so I can check the pattern before posting it online and make sure it's correct). I'm slightly better than midway up the foot.

(As I said before: socks seem to go faster for me once I've completed the leg-part. I don't know if it's because I have comparatively short feet (I wear a size 38 metric shoe, which I've been told translates to a 7 1/2 in American sizing - yet I take an 8 1/2 in athletic shoes) and I make the leg-part longer than the foot, or if it's a purely psychological thing.)

I also want to start something new. I don't know what. I just want to start something new. (Probably what's better is to pull out one of the stalled projects - Kenobi, or Bloom, or the Samus cardigan - and start work on that again). I think it's because I'm getting to the point where I can see summer actually being over (even though it's supposed to be, I think, the hottest day of the year so far here). I'm already thinking toward the time when I can wear hats and scarves and sweaters (other than the little cotton cardigans that I use in the over-air-conditioned classrooms).

I also want to finish the current quilt top - I might even be able to do that this weekend. Still trying to figure out what to use for a backing - none of the pieces I found in my stash that would do, color-wise, are quite big enough. I even swung by JoAnn fabrics on my grocery trip yesterday afternoon but failed to find anything. (There is now a small quilt shop in my hometown; maybe I'll wind up going there).

I did, however, find a backing-fabric for the fall-foliage quilt I have not yet started:



I love those kind of large-format prints, but usually can't use them in the tops of quilts, because the pattern gets all cut up.

Oh, and here are the fabrics I'm using for the front of the quilt:


Most of those are from a Keepsake Quilting packet purchased 2 or so years ago. (I did substitute one fabric - that tan fabric on the left replaces a teal print that I thought really didn't go.)

I also have more of the leaf-print (the one with the black background) to be the outer border on the top.